Definition

One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry, nor till the autocrats among us can be “literalists of the imagination”—above insolence and triviality and can present for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them, shall we have it.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Out of Standard with Izy

Greetings Garden Dwellers!

Welcome to the third edition of Out of Standard. Once a month I will set before you a challenge to defy the conventions of a particular theme. You will be called upon to find new places in the everyday, but there is a twist: in order to complete each challenge, you will also be asked to share something about yourself with the IGWRT community. Special thanks to Sherry Blue Sky who suggested this theme would make a great general prompt. So with thanks given, I proudly present....

August’s Challenge: Embrace your doomsday.

As long as civilization has been in existence, there have been those Doomsayers who foretell of an impending end. Some declarations are steeped in mythology, such as the Norse Ragnarök. Others are based on scientific calculations, see Heat Death of the Universe. Neither seem like very much fun.

Some hold to their own personal theories and lie in wait for their homegrown prophecies to bubble to the surface. The National Geographic Channel has aired two seasons of their show Doomsday Preppers about people who are preparing for way beyond realistic doomsday scenarios. They spend most of their waking hours canning food, building bunkers out of metal shipping containers (surprising cheap and cozy), and practicing their marksmanship. Again, no fun. No one is installing their own doomsday disco or stockpiling giant bouncy castles for end time picnics.

While doomsday is inevitable (everything that begins must end), it’s rather a downer of a topic.

Challenge Rules:

Toads, I call upon you to cast aside the doom and the gloom. I ask that you imagine yourself a doomsday and revel in the end times. Come to peace with the chaotic, inevitable nature of our solar system and write a doomsday poem which has a happy ending. Like every challenge, your poem must by newly written for this challenge and not one previously written which conveniently fits the theme.

Go now, my lovelies, and bring back something unexpected, something out of the Doomsday Standard.

What a totally cool prompt, Izy, and the twist you put on it will make this a lot of fun. I also apologize for being so behind, kids......was away and on return and sucked back into the whole Work/No Time thing. Sigh. I'll catch up at some point.

Wonderful wonderful prompt--and exploding atomic teddy bear lead-in pic--I must brood on this and get back, though after just reading Shay's, no doubt hammered out at dawn's crack this morning before work(!!) I am a bit humbled at tackling it. Thanks, Izy.

Oh, a very difficult one for me, Izy. I can face the idea of an end for myownself, because I've lived a long and eventful life, but I ache when I think of the children I love so much: my nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, my husband's grandchildren, and the grandchildren of my close friends.Just a wimp, I guess, but I'll try to think of something to write.K

I let myself off easy after reading Fireblossom's poem and weeping at everything from the orange bus on down. Bless her! I can only take so much catharsis in one day. Izy, you are a dangerous and worthy challenger!

Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to those whose responses will trickle in later. You all brought so much to the prompt. I found this challenge near impossible, and yet you all triumphed.....viva la

I also went for the lighter side of apocalypse--funny that contemplating total destruction of life as we know it made me finally write something cheery--oh well--I had fun with it, anyway. It's late late late here so will be by to read tomorrow.

love this! sorry, Izy, i was out of service yesterday AT THE BEACH but now am back and this is a topic i've flirted with a bunch of times, so it feels like fun. i'll work on it and come back, even if i'm late :)

Hello sweet Toads and Toad followers! Fireblossom here with another Fireblossom Friday challenge. I bet most of you are expecting some simpl...

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